Sunday, February 22, 2026

Susan (Nevill) Duncan, 1940 Obituary

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026

I have never found an obituary for my great-grandmother Duncan in the Clarksville Times, which was the most logical newspaper to print her obituary or death notice. Due to the owners of the Clarksville Times deliberately burning the older newspaper morgues, I did not think I would ever find a reference to Susan Gertrude (Nevill) Duncan's death.

As luck would have it, her brother Bud Neville (Solomon Neville) lived in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The Broken Bow News reported his trip to visit her in Avery, Texas, when she was extremely ill with heart trouble in February 1940. Note that Duncan is misspelled in this notice. I found it by searching for articles referencing Bud Neville. If you are neglecting your ancestor's siblings in your searches, then you are missing out on information about your direct line that you might not find any other way. 














When Susie died a few months later, Bud Neville's trip to Avery for her funeral was referenced in the Broken Bow News: 




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Saturday, February 7, 2026

G. D. Nevill, 1924 Obituary

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026 

Take this to heart. Do not give up in your search for information on your ancestors. It's out there, but it may take some time to surface. I've searched for an obituary for my 2x great-grandfather, G. D. Nevill, for decades. I knew it was a fruitless search because the newspaper where he died burned, but I've continued to look. The old Clarksville, Texas newspapers, prior to about 1944, were consigned to the bonfire by the owners of the Clarksville Times years ago. It's a sore spot among the residents who care about Red River County's history. And I admit, it's a sore spot with me, too.

My 2x great-grandfather was named Grandison D. Nevill after his father. Sometimes the name appears as Granderson. However, for most of his life, he was called Granville D. Nevill. I thought it was originally to distinguish him from his father, but in some records his father is called Granville, too. But, I digress. Nevill is spelled a variety of ways in records: Nevill, Neville, Nevil, Nevills, Nevilles, Nevils, Nevels, etc. The full list has to be kept in mind when using databases, like those for newspapears, that require exact spelling.

As luck would have it, Red River County, Texas, borders McCurtain County, Oklahoma, which also had newspapers. Granville's son, Solomon "Bud" Nevill was a real estate agent in Broken Bow, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. When Bud Nevill's father died, and he went to Avery, Texas, for the funeral, the Broken Bow News reported on it on 13 June 1924. 



























































The paper reported that Granville was injured when "in some way he fell" from the truck his son William "Bill" Granville Neville was driving.

As it turns out, I know how that happened, or at least, I know the Duncan version of what happened. My great-grandmother was Bud Nevill's sister, Susie Duncan of Avery, Texas. My grandfather told me this story several times. Decades later, he still became angry about what happened. My grandfather was seventeen when his grandfather died. He would have heard this discussed at home and probably around town. 

Bill Nevill was driving a truck with his father, Granville, in it. They were in Avery when Bill took a sharp curve by the Methodist Church too fast. That curve is still there. During my childhood, there was a railroad track crossing there as well. My grandfather always said that Bill was driving too fast when he took that curve and threw the old man out of the truck. My grandfather emphasized that they were meeting a horse and wagon, and Bill was driving so fast that he spooked the horse. 

Of the several states that Granville D. Nevill lived in, I know of Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Were there more??













Every time I take this curve, I think of my great-great-grandfather, Granville D. Nevill, falling from a vehicle and dying from his injuries. 

Granville Nevill was buried in Savannah Cemetery, near Avery, beside his wife, Louisa Rebecca (Walker) Nevill, daughter of John C. and Hannah (Holcomb) Walker. 


















































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Sunday, February 1, 2026

James S Piper, 1870 - 1874

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026 

By 1870, James S. Piper was in Marion County, Texas, with his new family:










Not surprisingly, James Piper's occupation is that of a contractor. He had $600 in real estate, and I have seen a deed record for James S. Piper in Marion County. His new wife, Mary A. Piper, is 45 years old and born in Tennessee, and their implied daughter, Laura, is 3 years old, also born in Tennessee. I estimate that James S. Piper and Mary Ann were married in about 1866. Where is currently unknown. Did James and Mary Ann meet in Georgia or Tennessee? Mary Ann would have been 41 at the time of their marriage. At that age, it is very likely that she had been married previously. 

I have not identified George Dyke. Was he an unrelated boarder or a family member? It's possible that he was a son of Mary Ann's. 

My cousin's family was told that James S. Piper and Mary Ann were Laura's grandparents. The only other candidate that I have for her father is James S. Piper Jr. 

In 1870, James S. Piper, Jr. was still in Carroll County, Maryland:










He was boarding with Theodore F. Engler, who was the first cousin of Ezra Engler, who provided testimony as to Mary (O'Hara) Piper's noncupative will in 1867. In 1870, James S. Piper was a 21-year-old farm laborer. In 1867, when Laura L. Piper was born, he would have been 18. He would have spent the previous year fending for himself after the death of his mother. On closer examination, he seems like an unlikely candidate to be Laura's father. I wonder if the Lennon family story was that James S. Piper and Mary Ann were old enough to be Laura's grandparents? 

In 1870, Horatio N. Piper was in Baltimore working as a bookkeeper. William H. Piper was serving with the 23rd Infantry in either Portland or Vancouver. 

In 1871, James S. Piper, Sr., was living in a house on the Gillespie survey in Marion County, Texas. That year he was also sued by the state of Texas for obtaining money under false pretenses. 

He appeared on the Marion County, Texas tax rolls from 1871 through 1874. Then he disappeared from their tax rolls. 

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James S. Piper, 1865 - 1869

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026


After the Civil War, James S. Piper disappeared from Washington DC and Baltimore. However, a J. S. Piper emerged in Atlanta, Georgia in 1865. Like James S. Piper, this J.S. Piper was engaged in the construction business. Orders could be left at the store of J.T. Meador, Esq. 







In 1866, James S. Piper of Atlanta travelled to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and stayed at Crutchfield House.














By 1868, James S. Piper, a mason, was a partner with John Law, a plasterer. They seem to be in business with James R. Slayton. This advertisement appeared several times in the Chattanooga Daily American Union. My conclusion is that the J. S. Piper who was a contractor in Atlanta, Georgie was James S. Piper and that he relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee. 





















Two days after this advertisement ran the partnership between J. R. Slayton, Jas S. Piper, and John law was dissolved.














A year later, Jas. S. Piper was supervising the construction of a three-story brick building for General Brown. A few years later, a flood destroyed much of downtown Chattanooga. I have not determined if this building survived. 



















Is this the same James S. Piper I've been researching? My gut says, "yes." This man appears in Atlanta at the same time James S. Piper disappeared from his Baltimore/Washington DC stomping grounds. Then he relocated to Chattanooga just in time for the Tennessee birth of his daughter, Laura Lee Piper, in 1867. 

This James S. Piper also seems to magically disappear from Chattanooga before the 1870 census was taken. 

This move would have placed James S. Piper in Atlanta, Georgia, when former wife, Mary, died in Carroll County, Maryland. William H. Piper joined the army during this time period. Horatio N. Piper seems to have been in Baltimore. It's possible that James S. Piper, Jr. made his way to Atlanta or Chattanooga to join his father. 


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Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Mary (O'Hara) Piper, 1866

  ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026

Mary O'Hara was James S. Piper's first wife. They married in Baltimore, Maryland, on 31 June 1841. Their little son, Henry Clay Piper, died on 4 August 1845 in Baltimore.  

Then James S. Piper turned up on the 1860 census of Washington DC with a wife named Elizabeth and a son named William H. Piper. The old me would have killed off Mary O'Hara by 1860 and assumed that there were no surviving children from the marriage of Mary O'Hara and James S. Piper. 

But that was the old me.

This census record for a Mary Piper and son James S. Piper turned up on the 1850 census for Carroll County, Maryland. 






Mary Piper was 24 years old and had been born in England. Her implied son was James S. Piper, age 4, born in Maryland. If this was James S. Piper's wife, where was he?

Then a Findagrave memorial for Mary Piper turned up. She died on 31 December 1866 and was buried in the Meadow Branch Cemetery in Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland. Her tombstone says that she was 40 years old, so she is the same Mary Piper who was on the 1850 Carroll County census. To date, I have not found her or her son James S. Piper on the 1860 census.

But was she the first wife of James S. Piper?

Mary Piper's noncupative will contained testimony from several people. Apparently, Mary Piper had been living with Elizabeth Englar for several years. Everyone testified that Mary wished for her property to go to her son James S. Piper. However, their testimony also revealed that she had one other son from whom she had been estranged:















The testimony of Elizabeth Englar's son, Ezra, revealed that the other son of Mary Piper was "always absent and had been weaned from her [Mary]": 















Their testimony did not reveal the name of the other son; however, he promptly turned up to contest her will. He was none other than Horatio N. Piper:













The court, however, recognized James S. Piper as the sole heir.

In 1850, Horatio N. Piper was living in the household of his grandfather, Philip Piper, in Baltimore. Horatio was eight years old, so he was two years older than James S. Piper, Jr. Where was James S. Piper, Sr., in 1850? He was not with either of his sons by Mary O'Hara nor with Mary. My guess is that James Sr. was somewhere with his son, William H. Piper, and possibly with William's mother. That's just a guess.

In 1880, Horatio N. Piper was living with his wife, Cora, and his aunts, Lizzie and Mattie Piper. They were all still living in Baltimore.

When Horatio N. Piper married Cora Felch in Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 July 1878, he stated that his parents were James S. and Mary Piper. 

Horatio N. Piper died in the 1880s. His obituary emphasized that he was the grandson of Philip Piper, deceased, of Baltimore:
















Somewhere, there is a divorce record for James S. Piper and Mary. I think James was too public a figure to commit bigamy. Their divorce would have occurred before William H. Piper's birth in 1848. Then there should be a marriage record somewhere for the marriage between James S. Piper and William H. Piper's mother. I would guess that marriage occurred by 1847. Since James S. Piper, Jr., was born about 1846, that creates a small window of time in which a divorce and remarriage occurred.

When the statement was made that Mary's other son, Horatio, was "weaned away from her," it is almost literal. James S. Piper, Jr. was probably still a nursing baby when Mary and James S. Piper parted ways, so she would have been able to keep him. Horatio would have been a toddler. When other events of James S. Piper's life are taken into consideration, yet another picture emerges. In May 1846, James S. Piper was raising a company to fight in the Mexican War. He returned in 1847. At the same time, his marriage with Mary fell apart, he entered a relationship/marriage with someone else, and had another son by 1848. 

Updated: 1 February 2026. 

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Tuesday, January 27, 2026

William H. Piper, 1871 - 1873

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2026

Part Two

Six days after William H. Piper was released from San Quentin, he re-enlisted in the army on 28 January 1869 and served in the 23rd Infantry, Company C.  After receiving a pardon from the governor, he had a second chance to get things right. That lasted about a year and a half.

Once again, when he enlisted, William H. Piper listed his occupation as musician. From that, I am guessing that he served in the band. 

The 23rd Infantry's band was stationed with the infantry. Mostly, they were in Portland, Oregon, but occasionally they relocated to Fort Vancouver, Washington. The band was highly thought of by the Portland community. So much so that their activities were followed in the local newspapers. The band also did their own recruiting:








They marched in the funeral processions of officers. They marched in a parade to honor Washington's birthday:










They played in the evening in the plaza of Portland, and their program was published in the newspaper in advance. They performed twice a week:












They competed at the State Fair:










William H. Piper deserted on 9 July 1871 at Fort Vancouver. Where he went from there and what he did is unknown. He remained on the run for around four months before he was arrested on 8 November 1871. This clipping states he deserted on 9 August, which is different from William H. Piper's military records.






On 7 November 1871, the same paper reported that a deserter from the 23rd was apprehended but escaped in route to Vancouver. Were these reports both about William H. Piper, or were there two deserters? If there were two, why were so many deserting?








My bigger question is, why did William H. Piper stay in the area? He could have cleared out, gone back east, but he stuck around. Why?

William H. Piper was court-martialed in Vancouver in December of 1871 and sentenced to serve time at Fort Alcatraz.  Because he deserted in peacetime, his sentence was light. If he had deserted during the Civil War, he would have been executed. 

Alcatraz, 1895










At the time of William H. Piper's incarceration, Alcatraz was a fort and military prison. William entered Alcatraz on 12 January 1872 and served his time there even though he was given a dishonorable discharge on 12 December 1871. A notation in his records refers to estimates for repairs to a hospital. 

William H. Piper was released from Alcatraz in June 1873, even though he did not serve his full sentence. He may have been released early for good behavior.

I have no further records of William H. Piper. As far as I can tell, he did not re-enlist in the army. That might be because the U.S. military had tightened its standards. Previously, men deserted for a variety of reasons - not enough food, low pay, slow pay, or general unhappiness. Then they could take advantage by re-enlisting and collecting a signing bonus. The military stopped allowing deserters to reenlist about the same time William was released from Alcatraz.

When William H. Piper left Alcatraz in the summer of 1873, he was 25 years old. For nine years, from the age of 16 to 25, he had either been in military service or serving in prison. He had been too young to learn any facet of the construction business from his father, and he was not raised on a farm. Therefore, he laced these skills. His marketable skills would have as a laborer or as a musician. The future probably looked bleak to him.

I have no evidence that William H. Piper tried to rejoin his father and brother, who were in Texas in 1873. It is possible that he had completely lost touch with them. 

If William were a character in a novel, I would predict a very bad end for him. Probably a life of crime. But California was a place where people reinvented themselves and started over. Anything was possible. 



Elizabeth (Powers) Piper, Plot Twist

James S Piper, 1864

James S Piper Goes to Philadelphia, 1876

William H. Piper, 1864 - 1871



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Sunday, January 25, 2026

Clara Ann Galt, Daughter of James J. and Mary Ann (Brown) Galt

©  Kathy Duncan, 2026

Clara Ann Galt, born about 1869 in Nebraska, to James Junius and Mary Ann (Brown) Galt is included on the double tombstone of her parents in the Appleton City Cemetery of Appleton City, Missouri. Only her name appears on the stone. No dates.

At the time of Clara Ann Galt's death in 1882, her parents and family were living in Bates County, Missouri, on the Blackwell farm in the southeast portion of the county. Here is the first newspaper clipping that I found about her death:
















It's in very poor condition, but it indicates that Clara died on Sunday and was buried on Monday with the funeral held in her parents' home. The words "Appleton cem" can just be made out along the top of the bottom portion of the article. Her extended family from Appleton City, St. Clair County, Missouri, must have travelled to the Blackwell farm to be in attendance. Then they must have formed a procession back to Appleton City for her burial. 

The second article that I found provided Clara's cause of death:















Of the three children, Clara was the one who died. They may have contracted typhoid or cholera. Based on census records, the other two must have survived. This makes me wonder who cared for the sick children while their parents attended their sister's funeral. Perhaps a neighbor stepped in to help? 

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